Leclerc to miss two games

From The Daily News of Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007 . . .

When you’re 4-5-1-0 and struggling to score, it’s good news when you find
out your goaltender, who suffered a sprained ankle in your most-recent loss,
should only miss two games.
“It’s probably the most-positive thing to happen to us for a while,” Dean
Clark, the Kamloops Blazers’ general manager and head coach, said Wednesday.
That was after he learned that goaltender Justin Leclerc, the Blazers’ most
valuable player to this point in the season, should be ready to return for
home games Oct. 26 and 27 against the Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Giants.
Leclerc, 18, injured his left ankle in a scramble seven minutes into the
first period of the Blazers’ 3-1 loss to the host Tri-City Americans on
Tuesday.
The game was scoreless — Leclerc had stopped three shots to that point — and
James Priestner came on to stop 19 of 21 shots the rest of the way.
“The ankle is slightly sprained,” Clark said. “It could have been a lot
worse . . . there isn’t any severe ligament damage.”
With Leclerc on the limp, the Blazers are bringing back Jon Groenheyde, 16,
from the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials. He is to practise with them today and
stay with them for games Saturday (against the Red Deer Rebels) and Sunday
(Calgary Hitmen).
Groenheyde, 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, had a terrific training camp and earned
a WHL contract in the process. In fact, he came this () close to hanging
around as the Blazers’ backup goaltender.
Instead, he was assigned to Merritt, where he is 1-4-0 with a 6.46 GAA and a
.835 save percentage for a team that is 3-8-0-2, having scored 31 goals and
allowed 65. (Merritt’s other goaltender is Anthony Manfredi, who had such a
glorious season with the KIJHL’s Kamloops Storm last season.)
Clark said he is approaching this weekend one game at a time, meaning
Groenheyde, who is from White Rock, will back up Priestner, another
16-year-old freshman, Saturday night in Red Deer.
Blazers right-winger Tyler Shattock also is on the limp but is expected to
play this weekend. Shattock, who led the team with six preseason goals but
has yet to score in the regular season, has a slightly bruised hip.
“He’s a little sore but told me he’ll play,” Clark said, adding that
Shattock played well on the four-game road trip into the U.S. Division. “He
had chances; he just didn’t score.”
Clark inserted centre Jimmy Bubnick between Alex Rodgers and Shattock, both
of whom are from Salmon Arm, and said he really liked what he saw.
JUST NOTES: The Saturday game in Red Deer starts at 6 p.m., Pacific time,
with the Sunday game in Calgary to begin at 1 p.m. . . . Kamloops has scored
first in only two of its first 10 games. It is 2-0-0-0 in those games. . . .
The winning goal in Tuesday’s Tri-City victory, which originally was
credited to LW Petr Stoklasa, was changed to C Drew Hoff. It was Hoff’s
first goal of the season and eighth in 81 regular-season games. . . . Radio
NL’s first Blazers phone-in show of the season goes tonight (5:30 to 7) from
Montana’s Cookhouse.